Time To Talk
by Angel-Morgan
Summary: Derek returns from the Pittsburgh and he and Penelope talk


TITLE: Time To Talk

Series: Ex's and Whores Series Part 2

AUTHOR: Angel

E-MAIL: derek.morgan. Criminal Minds

PAIRING: Penelope Garcia/Derek Morgan

PROMPT: 05 - Forgiveness

RATING: PG

WORD COUNT: 2,358

SUMMARY: Derek returns from the Pittsburgh and he and Penelope talk

NOTES: This is part 2 of a Ex's and Whore's series. Hugs and Cuddles to Chris for pointing out the spelling errors and for also being not only some inspiration but a sounding board for my ramblings!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters, nor am I making any money from them just borrow them from time to time.

&&&&&&&&&&

Penelope spent eight days working hard to put the image of the kiss out of her mind. Sadly it had helped that the case was such a difficult and time consuming one that she was able to spend most of her waking hours on it. There were even some nights she snuck into Hotch's office, curled up into a little ball and slept on the couch.

She did that sometimes though, if the team was away on a hard case and they could need her at any time, she would have a travel bag of her own with clothes for a few days as well as back up personal items. Granted Hotchner or the rest of the team didn't know that, but she figured as long as she did her work and stayed out of people's way, whose business was it.

Until that evening.

It was two am when Penelope got the call that the case had been solved and the team was about twenty minutes from home. She had been up for 36 hours working on a lead that ended up breaking the case wide open. She knew that she was too tired to safely drive home and figured that none of the team would be back in the office until morning anyway. So she decided to take a nap on Hotch's couch before going home.

Agent Hotchner didn't want to be in the office. He wanted to just go home and be with his son, but he knew that he had to drop the files off at work before he could. Tiredly walking into Quantico, he made his way up to his office and was surprised to see Garcia curled up on his couch with a little blanket and pillow, an overnight bag placed near her head with an alarm clock resting on top.

It didn't take him long to realize that Penelope had been sleeping on his couch while the team was away. He smiled to himself, finally putting the pieces of the puzzle together about how she was always ready for them during a case where the team was away. He made a mental note to have a room set up for her for future cases, since he knew that she would never obey the 'go home at the end of the night' order. And he had to admit that he was thankful for her dedication. She had proven too valuable on too many cases to lose. Even though she worked at the office, she was as much a major part of the Behavioral Analysis Unit as any other team member was.

Hotch only thought for a brief moment on a course of action before he stepped out of his office. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed a number.

"Morgan," Derek said tiredly.

"Hey Morgan, it's Hotchner," Hotch greeted just as tiredly.

"Hey Hotch, what's up? Please tell me not another case." Derek said.

Hotch groaned at just the thought of getting another case. "No, I figured you would be headed to Garcia's place, and I wanted to call and tell you that she's not home."

Derek slammed on his breaks at hearing that news. Penelope wasn't home? Damn! He needed to find her. Then Hotch's words sank in.

"How do you know she's not home?" He asked. "It's almost three in the morning, where else would she be?"

"Relax Morgan," Hotchner replied. "I know she's not home because I am standing her looking at her, asleep, curled up on the couch in my office. It looks like she's been sleeping here while we've been on this case."

Derek looked around and not seeing any traffic, made a U-turn and headed back toward the office. He wanted his Penelope and he was going to get her.

"I'll be there in 5 minutes." Derek informed Hotch as he gunned the engine and sped back to the office.

"I'll wait in the bullpen for you. There are some things I need in my office and I don't want to turn on the light and disturb her." Hotch said.

"Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can." Derek said as he hung up the phone.

Ten minutes later Derek Morgan stepped off the elevator and as soon as he walked into the bullpen he saw Agent Hotchner standing at his desk.

"Hey Hotch, thanks for letting me know she's here." Derek said. "I would have been worried sick if I had gotten to her house and not find her there."

"I had a feeling you were going to head out there, so I wanted to call before you got too far." Hotch replied.

"Let's go get my Sleeping Beauty." Derek said as the two men headed up the stairs to the office.

Hotch stopped at the door and let Derek step into the office. Not wanting to wake Penelope, Derek walked softly to the couch and knelt down beside it looking at Penelope. Quietly packing up her bag Derek looked up at Hotch and motioned that he was going to take her home. Hotch nodded and came forward to take Penelope's bag and waited for Derek to pick Penelope up.

Derek gently placed his arm under Penelope's knees and his other arm behind her shoulders and in one slow and steady movement he stood up. Turning he followed Agent Hotchner out the door.

Both men were quiet as they walked down to the parking garage, Hotch leading the way and holding all of the doors open for Derek. Settling Penelope in the passenger seat, Derek put the seatbelt around her and silently clicked it in place. Backing out of the car he closed the passenger door just as Hotch did the same with the back door.

"Thanks again for calling me, Hotch. I'll take her home and make sure she gets a comfortable rest." Derek said.

"The two days off applies to Garcia as well." Hotch informed Derek as he headed back to the elevator to head back up to his office.

"Thanks, Hotch. I'll let her know." Derek said as he got in the car.

He waited until Hotchner was safely in the elevator and the doors had closed before he pulled out of the FBI office garage and headed for his place.

It took twenty minutes for Derek to reach his house and in that time Penelope did not wake for which Derek was grateful. He knew that she had had a difficult few days and he wanted her to get a good night sleep.

He unbuckled her seatbelt and grabbed her bag from the back of the car, then went to unlock the door and pull the bed covers down in the bedroom so he could just tuck her right in.

Going back to the car he gently lifted Penelope in his arms, kicked the car door closed and headed into the house. He went straight to the bedroom and laid Penelope gently on his bed and covered her up.

Hurrying with taking a shower Derek dried himself off and put a pair of sweat pants on. He then crawled into the bed and pulled Penelope close and drifted off to sleep.

&&&&&&&&&&&&

Penelope was having a wonderful dream. She dreamt that she was in a firm but soft bed and that someone was making her pancakes and bacon for a breakfast in bed. Smiling she rolled over and pulled the spare pillow close to her and settled down to get more sleep.

She didn't know how much longer she slept for, but Penelope did know what woke her up. The wonderful smells that were leaking out of her sleep were insisting she get up and make breakfast. Groaning she opened her eyes and groaned softly.

"Alright, alright, you win! I'll make pancakes." Garcia muttered as she turned over and tossed the blankets off of her, only to stop when she saw Derek standing at the door with a bed tray in his hands.

"Good morning." He said softly, now hesitant to approach the bed.

Penelope looked down and said softly, "Good morning. What are you doing here?"

Derek smiled, "Hotch called me last night and told me that you were curled up in his office sleeping, so I went and got you and brought you home."

"Agent Hotchner knows that I was sleeping on his couch?" Penelope asked in dismay. "I was not expecting anyone to be in the office last night. How angry is he?"

Derek was quick to reassure Penelope, "He's not upset at all. Actually the mystery of how you are always ready for us at a moment's notice was solved."

"Oh," she said still not looking up at Derek. "What are you doing here?"

Not able to control himself any longer, Derek approached the bed and put the tray next to Penelope and knelt down in front of her.

"I brought you to my house Penelope, it was closer." He said.

Penelope was visually shocked by that news. Derek had brought her to his home and put her in his bed to sleep. She didn't know how she felt about that. On one hand she was glad to have Derek home, but at the same time she didn't know how to be around him anymore.

Derek knew that he had a lot to make up for, and he hoped that they could spend the next two days together. He wanted to erase the new apprehensive look in her eyes.

It was then that Penelope noticed the time and said, "I have to get to work."

"Hotch gave the team the next two days off since the last case was so stressful." Derek informed her.

"I'm not…" She started to say before he cut her off.

"Baby girl don't even think about saying you're not part of the team. You are invaluable to the team. Hotch wanted me to tell you that you were included." Derek said.

The endearment caused Penelope to gasp and tears to pool in her eyes.

"Can I explain what happened that day? Please?" Derek asked his heart breaking as he saw her reaction.

"It doesn't matter Derek, really it doesn't." she said softly. "I should have known better."

"Hey now," Derek said as he lifted her chin up so he could look her in the eyes. "It does matter to me. I don't want what happened with Pamela to come between us. I love you Penelope. You are my Goddess."

"Why was she there? Why did she kiss you like that?" Penelope asked, giving into the questions that demanded answers.

"I don't know how or why she showed back up now, and I don't care. I haven't seen Pamela in two years. Not since she walked out on me because I put my job first." Derek explained. "I tried to get away from her but she dug her nails into my arms so hard she was cutting into me."

At hearing that Penelope looked at Derek's bare arms and saw a few stitches here and there on his arms that looked like nail marks. She reached up and put her fingers on the wounds as one of the tears fell down her face.

"She hurt you. You really were trying to get away." Penelope said softly.

"Yeah Baby Girl, I was trying to get away from her." Derek said.

"It hurt to see her kissing you Derek." She said softly. "It made me second guess myself and whatever our relationship is."

"It broke my heart to see you hurting Penelope. I have never wanted to hit a woman as much as I wanted to hit Pamela at that moment." He said. "But I knew that she would have used that against me, and I didn't want to give her the satisfaction."

"Derek," Penelope said softly.

Derek got a sinking feeling and he knew what she was going to say before she said it. His heart broke into a million pieces just thinking that he and Penelope were over before they began.

"Penelope, please," Derek begged softly, "Please give me another chance."

Penelope looked up and put her hand on the side of Derek's face. She could feel the morning stubble under her hand and the tears pooled her eyes.

"It's not that I don't want to give 'us' another try, Derek." She said. "Seeing her kissing you has made me start to second guess myself and I can feel myself starting to go to a place that I don't want to go. It took me a long time to get confident enough in myself and now I can feel myself sliding back to that self conscious little girl."

Penelope looked down at her hands and said, "I can't go back to that person, Derek."

"I don't want you to go back to that person, Penelope. I love you too much to hurt you in any way." Derek said as he put his hand on Penelope's.

Derek got an idea and he hoped that Penelope would agree.

"How about we take a step back?" he said. "Not break up, but I never did get a chance to court you and we never did do the whole 'dating' thing. How about if we try that? And you set the pace. No pressure what so ever from me."

Penelope looked at Derek in shocked wonder. No one had ever offered that to her and the fact that he had made her fall in love with him more than she already was. She knew that she needed time and if Derek was willing to step back then she couldn't' say no.

"You would do that? For me?" she asked.

"Baby girl I would do anything you wish, if you would just say you don't want to break up with me." Derek affirmed.

"I would like that Derek." She said.

Derek leaned into her hand and pressed his check against it, tears of relief springing to his own eyes.

"Thank you, Penelope. I promise you won't regret it." He said softly.

Smiling Penelope thought to herself, 'of that I have no doubt, my Sweetness.'


End file.
